


Body Guard

by liquidheartbeats



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Enemies to Lovers, F/M, I like angst okay?, Smut, Some Action, mostly romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-06
Updated: 2019-04-06
Packaged: 2020-01-05 23:06:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18375929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/liquidheartbeats/pseuds/liquidheartbeats
Summary: When Iris West digs a little too deeply into the unsavory business dealings of Central City's Mayor, she finds herself on the run, with only one man to protect her, a rookie cop named Barry Allen.





	Body Guard

Iris’s fingers clacked ferociously across her keyboard, though she barely had a page and a half to show for it. The only way she’d be able to finish her exposé on the Mayor’s illegal dealings within Central City’s prison system before the City could re-elect him would be to pull an all-nighter.

But the mere thought of two sleepless nights in a row made her stomach turn. There wasn’t enough coffee in the world.

“Shit!” She shrieked, slamming her fists onto the desk she'd made from stacking crates on top of each other.

No sooner than her fists made contact, did a figure burst violently through the door of the small room she'd been forced into. Iris jumped up from her chair, heart rate skyrocketing until she realized that the man with a gun pointed at her was Barry Allen, the rookie cop her late father’s partner, David Singh hired to protect her from the countless people who wanted her dead, these days.

“Ma’am, are you okay?!”

Gun drawn, the svelte figure cased the room. It had been less than a day since someone, probably who worked for The Mayor, had set the home she’d inherited from her father on fire. Stubborn to the bone, it had taken that tragedy for Iris to finally realize the death threats she’d been receiving were more than just threats. Still, she would not be deterred. Her work was far too important.

The Mayor was getting rich off the suffering of people who’d served their time in jail. If she didn’t get her story before Election Day, Central City would have to deal with him for four more years.

“Ma’am,” the man repeated, voice lower this time, as the non-threatening scene registered itself in his brain. “Why the hell did you yell like that?”

Torn from her thoughts, Iris raised a palm to her head. “False alarm, I’m sorry,” she said, voice pained, partially because she was sorry. But also because she had known Barry Allen less than twenty-four hours but he was already a pain in her ass.

Though he couldn't have been more than a couple of months her junior, his insistence on calling her ma’am irked her beyond belief. Despite the formality, he often spoke to her like a petulant child. " _Don't you know that you can't log in to your email, accounts ma'am?! They've likely been compromised to track your whereabouts?_ " Or, _"Yeah, you can call your best friend, if you want the next time you see her to be at her funeral."_

Just a few hours into this three-day hideout situation and she was already reconsidering her decision to turn down Singh’s offer of protective custody. Though she'd been tempted, she knew the rules of the program. They would limit her access to the internet, monitor every phone call, even follow her into the bathroom. And that was no way to live.

Not to mention, she couldn’t fathom that there wasn’t at least one cop on the force involved in all of this. If she went into custody, she could be walking directly into the monster’s lair.

Thankfully, Iris didn’t have to worry about that with Singh. He was the only cop on the force she trusted with her life. Well, him and Barry Allen, a recent transfer from Key Stone. For as anal as he was, and God was he anal, she had an intensely comforting gut feeling that she could trust him. And yet, that still didn’t soften his edges enough to make her like him, even if he did reek of boyish good looks and model height.

Barry scrunched up those features that would make her heart flutter under normal circumstances, and lowered his gun, but didn’t return it to the holster inside of his suit jacket. He had to keep his guard up, even here.

His best friend, Cisco Ramon had graciously allowed for him to crash at his vacation home, outside of the city. Since no one yet knew that Barry had taken on this job, it would take some time for the undesirables to possibly make the connection, and even look in this direction. He only needed to keep her safe for three days, Singh had assured him, then he could get back to his life.

As a new hire, he was surprised when he’d been pulled aside. He’d never been a bodyguard before and had less than two years of experience. But Singh had been overly confident in him that he could pull this job off. And he was not about to let him down – especially considering he severely needed the $10,000 fee that came with it, for more reasons than one.

Until then, he had to deal with this frustratingly beautiful woman who wouldn’t even do the bare minimum to keep them from getting tracked. Considering that her face was curled up in offense since he, apparently, interrupted her writing session, it was impossible for him not to let out a loud, agonized huff.

Realizing what that sound preceded, Iris rolled her eyes. “If you’re going to scold me, please get it over with. I have work do to.”

“Yeah, and I do too, ma’am,” he replied, voice gritted. “It’s keeping you alive so that you can present your work to the world. So please…save the attitude.”

He turned to leave, attempting to give the ungrateful journalist the little privacy he could. The interior safe room, where she'd been working, was fire, bomb, bullet, and radiation proof. There was only one entrance in, and it was located in the exterior's security room, where he'd been sitting, monitoring every room of the house, as well as the perimeter.

That was before she'd nearly scared the shit out of him with her screaming, and made his heart plummet down into his stomach. The look of annoyance on her face only strengthened the scowl forming across his.

Not appreciating the non-verbal lashing, Iris perched one hand on her hip. “Excuse me for not thinking clearly. Two days ago, I was in my comfortable home my father left me, and today I'm in the middle of nowhere, with a man who has a stick stuck permanently up his ass."

“And I’m in the middle of nowhere, risking my life for a woman who, frankly, doesn’t…” He stopped, short, shaking off his former line of thinking with a roll of the eyes.

Iris stepped forward, arms flared “What?” Iris beckoned. “A woman who what?"

He sighed. "Never mind. I'll be out here if you need me," he said before his gaze caught the face of his wristwatch. It was almost 11 PM. "Lights out in one hour."

Iris scoffed, folding her arms across her chest.

“Problem…ma’am?”

She’d swore that a smirk followed his eye-roll inducing "ma'am" but she wasn’t sure if the muscles in his face even stretched in that direction.

"Last time I checked, my father, God rest his soul, is buried back home in Central City," Iris said, flatly.

"And last time I checked, there are dangerous men out there who want you dead. In the event this location becomes compromised, you need to be alert so we can make a quick escape.”

"What I need to do," Iris pushed on, "Is finish the work I started. Otherwise, all of this—uprooting my life, losing a lifetime worth of memories with my father in a fire— will be for nothing," she replied, the tremble in her voice growing with every word, as tears rose to the surface of her eyes.

She huffed, and looked away, angry at herself for showing emotion to this complete stranger. If she was being really honest, she was angry for showing emotion at all. Her father had been dead — pancreatic cancer —for barely six months, and she still hadn't mourned him fully, because if she allowed herself that deep, soul-cleansing cry she needed, she wouldn't be able to ever stop.

For the first time since Barry had met Iris, he felt genuine emotion coming from her. Even Singh going above and beyond to ensure the safety of his former partner's only daughter didn't seem to faze her. She'd fought him every step of the way until finally, she realized that she didn't have much choice in the matter. It was protective custody or him. She'd chosen him, and it was clear she was regretting every single second of it.

But seeing her near the point of a breakdown, after mentioning her late father, it melted the stubborn stoicism on his face into sadness. He knew how very deeply the loss of a parent could cut. Times two. But he corrected his expression at once. "While I am extremely sorry for your loss," he started, voice laced with the empathy that shown briefly on his face, "the opposite is also true: if you die, all of this would have been for nothing. Let’s not let that happen, alright?” He said, voice completely devoid of the timbre of his that made her skin crawl.

Iris nodded but didn’t speak.

"Now," he said, "Please. Wrap things up for tonight and get some sleep.”

Iris scoffed, derisively, wiping away the stubborn tears in the corner of her eyes that threatened to paint her face. "Yeah, I'll just make me a bed on these crates, or in his plastic chair," she replied, voice coated lightly in sarcasm.

"Actually, I was thinking the floor would be more comfortable, but do what you think is best.” With that, he was gone, leaving her alone in the sardine can of a room.

Iris looked around the bleak setup and sighed. This was going to be the longest three days of her life.

 


End file.
